Tech

Amazon spent a cool $11 billion on TV series, movies and music for its Prime services last year, an increase of 41% from $7.8 billion in 2019, the ecommerce giant disclosed in its annual report. The total content spending includes licensing and production costs associated with video and music offered to Amazon’s Prime members, as

Discovery Plus, the cable programmer’s fledgling nonfiction streaming service, is available on Amazon Prime Video Channels in the U.S. — although for now, Prime members are able to sign up only for the higher-priced version with no ads. Discovery Plus launched Jan. 4 in the U.S. on most devices and services, including Amazon Fire TV

In a leadership shakeup, Tencent Music Entertainment Group has announced that Zhu (“Ross”) Liang has been appointed as the company’s new CEO, with Cussion Kar Shun Pang moving over to executive chairman of the company’s board of directors. According to the announcement, as CEO, Liang’s primary responsibility will be to oversee TME’s QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo

Looking to boost revenue from its digital news readership, Reuters is following major rivals in adopting a paywall strategy for its website, reuters.com. The company will charge $34.99 per month for access to the site’s content, allowing non-subscribers to view up to five articles per month for free. Reuters’ move, announced Thursday, brings it in

Pearpop is turning social-media capital into real dollars — and the startup has banked $16 million to build out its marketplace for buying and selling social collaborations among creators. The total includes $10 million in Series A financing led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners as well

Amazon Prime, the ecommerce giant’s membership program that includes access to Prime Video, now counts more than 200 million subscribers globally, founder Jeff Bezos wrote in his final annual letter to shareholders as CEO. Bezos most recently had announced that Amazon Prime had topped 150 million members in January 2020. The company rarely releases such

Hulu has acquired U.S streaming rights to Sabrina Van Tassel’s timely documentary “The State of Texas vs. Melissa” which was selected for Tribeca in 2020 and it has won a flurry of accolades, including Raindance’s best documentary award. Hulu acquired the documentary from FilmRise, which represents theatrical and digital rights to the film for North

Samuel Montoya, identified as a video editor for the Infowars far-right conspiracy website, was arrested for participating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. Federal agents arrested Montoya at his Texas home on April 13, and he was charged Wednesday on four counts: entering and remaining in a restricted

Tagger Media secured an $8.5 million Series A investment from Five Elms Capital, a global investor in high growth B2B software businesses. The funding will accelerate its product roadmap development and momentum of sales and marketing reach around the globe. “Tagger is shaping the future of how brand marketers will plan, manage and measure their

Adam Perkins, the Vine star best known for his viral “Welcome to Chili’s” video, died Sunday. He was 24. His twin brother Patrick Perkins announced the news late Tuesday night in an Instagram post. He did not disclose his brother’s cause of death. “I can’t even really put into words what this loss means for

CAA has inked an advisory deal and partnership with Sweety High, which tailors video content, and lifestyle and commerce offerings for Gen Z audiences. Sweety High has created multiple scripted video series and launched an influencer network called Social Impact. It’s also rapidly expanding its Gen Z management roster, including talents like Lilly K and

Amazon Prime Video this month launched the local version of its comedy show “LOL: Last One Laughing” in Italy where it has rapidly become the most watched title ever on the platform’s Italian service, says Amazon Studio Head of Italian Originals Nicole Morganti who in an exclusive interview with Variety discussed Amazon’s local strategy a

David Rogier got the inspiration to launch MasterClass, the online learning platform, from advice he received as a boy from his grandmother. Education is something that can never be taken away from a person, she explained to him. Years later, when Rogier had the opportunity to start his own venture after working for some time

In the wake of escalating violence against Asians in the U.S., crowdfunding site GoFundMe collaborated with independent film director Bao Nguyen to produce a short film that shines a light on the historical issue of anti-Asian racism in the country — with the participation of Olivia Munn, Ken Jeong, Lisa Ling, and other entertainment and

Netflix’s multibillion-dollar content spending continues paying off: The lion’s share of U.S. consumers say the streamer has the best original programming, according to a new Morgan Stanley survey. Netflix remains the most frequently cited as offering the best original programming — with 38% of survey respondents picking it as No. 1, per the Wall Street

Streaming media service Plex, looking to grow its free, ad-supported video business, announced that it raised more than $50 million in Series C financing from existing investor Intercap. The financing round includes approximately $15 million in new capital. The remainder represents Intercap’s secondary purchases from employees and other early shareholders. To date, Plex has raised

The celebrity Courtney Stodden came out as non-binary Tuesday night, and announced their new pronouns on social media. Posting on Instagram and Twitter, Stodden began by writing, “They/them/theirs. I don’t Identify as she or her. I’ve never felt like I ever fit in anywhere.” Reached via a direct message on Twitter Tuesday night, Stodden said,

Netflix veteran Jessica Neal is leaving the company, after leading the streamer’s HR, recruiting, culture and coaching teams since 2017. The company didn’t provide a reason for her departure. A Netflix rep declined to comment on Neal’s exit and would not confirm whether the company is planning to hire an exec to replace her in

DraftKings is upping its bet on original content: The sports-wagering company announced the appointment of Brian Angiolet, a two-decade veteran of Verizon, as its first chief media officer. Most recently, Angiolet was senior VP and chief business officer at Verizon, after originally joining the telco in 1999. He starts at DraftKings on April 26 and

Ask any executive what the music business was like in the ’00s and their face may take on an expression more commonly associated with narrowly averted disasters like car accidents or, more accurately, attempted robberies. Due to peer-to-peer file-sharing platforms like Napster and Limewire, U.S. recorded-music revenues lost more than half their value in the

Epic Games, the company behind global smash hit “Fortnite,” announced that it completed a $1 billion round of funding — giving it a whopping equity valuation of $28.7 billion. The round includes an additional $200 million investment from Sony, which pumped $250 million into Epic last year (for an implied valuation of $17.9 billion at

Netflix wants to get tykes clicking into their favorite TV shows and movies faster: The streamer is launching a redesigned kids profile on connected TVs to prominently feature characters from their most-watched titles right on home screen. It’s an effort by Netflix to engage kids more immediately, by using a visual language they grasp more

Looking to upgrade your Roku remote? The company launched its first rechargeable remote control, priced at $30, that will let you track it down if you’ve lost it by simply saying “Hey Roku, find my remote.” The Roku Voice Remote Pro works with all of the company’s players and Roku TV models dating back to

Netflix has renewed its biggest new original series, “Bridgerton,” for seasons 3 and 4. Season 2 of the sex-soaked show set in Regency London is currently in production and in keeping with the novels, tells a new romance story — that of Lord Anthony Bridgerton’s quest for love. Sadly for fans of the show, Season

Google is killing off the Google Play Movies & TV app, which lets users purchase and rent films and series, from Roku devices and smart TVs. As of June 15, 2021, the Google Play Movies & TV app will no longer be available on the Roku players or TVs or Samsung, LG and Vizio smart

MeWe, a privacy-focused social network that runs no advertising, has hired entertainment and tech exec Jeffrey Edell as CEO as the upstart looks to lure more celebrities to the platform. Edell, who also is joining MeWe’s board of directors, succeeds company founder Mark Weinstein, who is assuming the new role of chief evangelist. Edell has

UPDATED: Many users trying to access several Google productivity applications — including Google Docs and Google Drive — encountered serious technical problems Monday morning. Google said the issues were resolved by 12:20 p.m. ET, more than three hours after people first began reporting various issues with the services. According to the internet giant’s status page,

Marc Maron’s long-running “WTF” interview podcast is the recipient of the top accolade for the Podcast Academy’s first-ever Ambies awards. The Podcast Academy selected “WTF With Marc Maron” as the winner of the inaugural Governors Award, which recognizes a podcast or individual for the “compelling impact they’ve had on the industry.” Maron and “WTF” co-creator

Microsoft said it clinched a deal to buy Nuance Communications, a pioneering voice-recognition tech company, in an all-cash transaction valued at $19.7 billion, inclusive of Nuance’s net debt. It would be the second-biggest acquisition for Microsoft behind its $26 billion deal for LinkedIn in 2016. Microsoft expects the deal to close in calendar year 2021,

Vox Media, the media company whose properties include New York Magazine, announced the acquisition of Cafe Studios, the podcast company co-founded by Preet Bharara, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Bharara — who inspired the character played by Paul Giamatti in Showtime’s “Billions”